Tag Archives: beer battered tofu

Happy Saturday evening! Trying to post quickly before we watch this movie tonight.

Had a nice weekend day here. Woke up to the sound of meows begging for food and then meditated and ate greek yogurt with chia seeds, wild blueberry preserves and fresh raspberries for breakfast.

Did three loads of laundry before leaving the house to meet my friend Danielle at the mall.

I went to the mall with lots of coupons and deals in my purse. :) That makes me happy and Danielle was not surprised I came with lots of coupons, as she knows I am the coupon queen like my mom is!

First up was a free $10 Francesca’s gift card just for turning in an e-mail I got from Mayfair Mall’s The Club at Mayfair. Score! Didn’t find anything at Francesca’s yet, but will eventually because they have lots of cute stuff.

I used my mom’s $10 Victoria’s Secret birthday card (she didn’t want it and is a nice mom so she let me have it) to get some lacie underwear.

Then it was time for lunch at Panera. I was very selective with what I chose because Panera helped me out by posting calories on the menu and that helped me decide on healthier choices. I did the “You Pick 2″ and got a greek salad with a ham and swiss sandwich. The bread was so fantastic on the sandwich. I loved the caraway seeds in it. The salad also tasted so refreshing and this meal was what my body was craving. I didn’t eat the apple, but saved it for later. The Panera workers came around with free samples and I snagged a pretty big piece of a pumpkin muffin and a crossaint thing filled with soft cheese. Both were delicious!

After filling up our bellies, we ventured back to shopping. Unfortunately, Danielle is pregnant (well fortunately) and can’t really shop for much because of her ever changing body. She happily escorted me into Banana Republic, Ann Taylor Loft, Gap and then the Aveda store to score this free item. They were out of a free item on a coupon I had and were nice enough to give me a pretty big sized Foot Relief. God only knows my feet need this after the long winter.

We enjoyed coffee at Starbucks to perk us up. I had an iced coffee and it was exactly what I needed.

I also picked up a cute and very me dish towel at Crate and Barrell. I knew I would probably use it as a placemat for the blog more than as a dish towel. I’ll show it later in my post.

A good day at the mall because I only spent about $2.00 and I got a couple nice little items.

Once home, I was in the mood to bake, so I whipped up a batch of Nutella Cookies using this recipe.

1. In one bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
2. In the bowl of a mixer, cream the butter and the two sugars until all is integrated and fluffy.
3. Mix in the Nutella, followed by the chopped hazelnuts. Beat in the eggs one at a time, followed by the vanilla.
4. Add the flour mixture to the mixing bowl in three increments, integrating each one before adding the next.
5. Chill dough while oven preheats to 350°F Scoop the dough into balls and bake for about 10 minutes.

They turned out kind of flat and big. I think someone else said the same thing in their review. They still tasted yummy. I only changed the recipe slightly by using less Nutella (didn’t have enough on hand and wanted to make it a little less fattening) and some whole wheat flour mixed in with the white flour. The cookies are very buttery and my husband loved them due to this fact.

Dinner was beer battered tofu (yes, there are still leftovers), grape tomatoes and carrots. Pictured on the new Crate and Barrell dish towel, which looks kind of bad due to our ugly yellowish kitchen lighting.

I am starting to feel better now, but I have noticed that as a result of feeling sick all week, I really did slack off in the fitness department (including today, unless you count walking at the mall as some exercise). I need to get back on track next week and create a plan for my workouts each day including classes, cardio machines and weights. I’ll try to post my plan tomorrow and may do this every week to see if I can stick to the plan and hold myself accountable. I have seen bloggers like Fit Chick in the City do this and I like the idea. Do you write out your workout schedule for the week?

Time to log off and watch King Corn. Have you seen it before and if so, what did you think?

I have been at my current job for three years as of today. Can’t believe I have worked somewhere that long, but then again, my husband has been at his company 11 years now and that’s amazing for a 30 year old!

Breakfast was Chobani vanilla greek yogurt, fresh strawberries and chia seeds. I was so full after this meal!

I still haven’t been feeling good and contemplated leaving work early this afternoon. I stuck it out though. I may end up calling in sick tomorrow if this stomach stuff keeps up.

And that’s all folks. It’s a short post for today. I have to go rest and read a book. I started A Homemade Life and I really like it so far. Oh and I might get a bit distracted by the royal wedding excitement currently on TV. :) I am excited to see what Kate wears!

Hooray for a good day at work! I was able to get away from my desk for a little while and work with the public, which I’ll admit can either be really fulfilling for me or really frustrating. Luckily, it was fulfilling. It was nice to get away from my desk too.

Breakfast this morning was Eggo fiber plus calcium frozen waffles and a coffee. My coffee tasted excellent and I think the trick is sticking to Starbucks coffee when I make it at home. I really have only found a few other brands that even come close in flavor. I know some people don’t like Starbucks and think it tastes burnt. I also like Peet’s coffee, which is based in California, but you can find their beans at the Fresh Market. That’s the strong coffee that got me through grad school!

At work, I snacked on a banana because I had wanted to eat it for breakfast, but knew it wouldn’t fit in my little tummy so I chose to eat it around 10 a.m. with some raw almonds.

Lunch was a Bruschetta Boca burger on an Arnold’s Thin, an apple and two peanut butter girl scout cookies.

After work, I went straight to the Metro Market grocery store in downtown Milwaukee and picked up some ingredients for my dinner.

I made beer battered tofu for dinner using New Belgium Mothership Wit beer and Bob’s Mill cornmeal.

I literally came up with the idea for beer battered tofu as I laid in bed the other night, thinking of what I could make for another New Belgium beer recipe. This recipe is one that I didn’t create on my own, but had to adapt from here. Like the person who posted this recipe, I don’t like fish, so that is why I wanted to make beer battered tofu.

1. Mix beer and flour in a bowl until you have a thin batter. Sometimes this uses more or less flour. Just adjust until it looks like a thin pancake batter.
2. In a second bowl, mix remaining 6 ingredients.
3. Cut tofu into 1/4 inch thick slices. I got about 10 or 12. Place slices on 1 piece of paper towel then place a couple of paper towels on top of the slices and pat to dry a little.
4. Heat oil in heavy skillet or cast iron pan until one drop of water splashed in spits around the pan.
5. Carefully dip slices of tofu in beer batter shaking off the excess. Place in cornmeal mixture and tap each side to get coating to stick.
6. Place in hot oil and fry until golden about 3 minutes each side. Remove from pan and place on paper towels to drain.

7. Serve with tartar sauce or sweet chili sauce.

It tasted yummy and was oh so appropriate for this week’s British fever with the royal wedding. I seriously LOVE tartar sauce and it’s such a shame I don’t eat fish to enjoy it more often. I even dip french fries into it when Craig gets fish and chips at a restaurant.

Since my stomach has still been acting up, I felt really full after eating tonight, but dragged myself to the gym. I was excited to workout, but my body didn’t feel the same way. I was bloated and my legs felt so heavy when running on the treadmill. I cranked out 2.0 miles exactly and walked for a warmup and cool down, so I did a total of 24 minutes. I also lifted a few weights, including free.

Once I got home from the gym, I had to meditate right away and here I am blogging late tonight, around 9, so it’s off to relax a bit and then get ready for bed.

If you use WordPress–be aware that they must have changed something because I just noticed that my “allow comments” button wasn’t checked like it usually is automatically. Ever since they adding this “writing helper” widget at the bottom of my post, it must have changed something.